In its report, Onavo stated: “When YouTube became available as a free download in the App Store, there was no doubt that it would be popular, but the YouTube app has become more than popular. YouTube is an app giant. The month of its September, 2012 release, YouTube reached a 20% market share. As of December, its market share was 44.5%!”

The chart accompanying the survey shows that downloads for the YouTube app grew rapidly between September and November 2012, but growth remained flat in December. Still, YouTube can expect growth in mobile viewing in 2013, as a survey by Flurry pointed out that in 2012 users spent on average two hours using Android and iOS apps.

The Onavo survey also highlighted other Google iOS apps, including Google Maps, which has been downloaded by nearly 30 percent of iPhone since it debuted last month to much fanfare, and Google Search, which is used by 16 percent of iPhone users.

Besides releasing its standalone app, YouTube has also tapped into the mobile market by hyping a mobile/smart TV pairing at CES earlier this month. The platform will probably debut later this year.

Sharing this

Ed Carrasco has been in the journalism field for nearly a decade. Some of his photographs/articles have been featured in publications such as the Guardian, LA Weekly, OC Weekly, the Fullertonian, Cerritos-Artesia Patch and Orange Coast Magazine.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA and a master’s degree in Journalism from Kingston University in the United Kingdom.